DanceLessons

Polity - not so uncommon denomination

While we take great pride in our uniqueness of congregational polity, we have much in common with other denomination organizational issues. We may not be as uncommon as we would like think.  “Organizing Religious Work for the Twenty-first Century: Exploring Denominationalism”, which began in 1997.   

Roozen and his colleague James Nieman edited, Church Identity and Change, and it contains historical introductions, sociological case studies, theological essays and theological reflections on six mainline US denominations as they confront unsettled times of postmodernity, technology and growth in diversity.  It shows that many denominations today are experiencing “defacto congregationalism.’     In denominations [and in Unitarian Universalism] congregationalism results in a national staff that “can no longer assume any … simple set of congregational models… it becomes much more difficult for anyone in the system to be aware of the needs and aspirations of congregations across the multiple contexts, much less develop the necessary diversity of resources for them.”

It is unrealistic to expect the UUA to be aware of the needs and aspirations of our very diverse UU congregations. I hope the new format at GA called Open Technology will provide a place for dialogue.  Although it may be more like a group monologue. See the pdf file Open Technology .   But it is a step in the right direction.

Nancy

Googling, Abebooks, and 1946

I've been writing a paper on congregational polity and growth/identity initiatives by the UUA.  As usual I've spent way,way too much time researching and now have difficulty summarizing it on paper.   

I'm a googler at heart and once I start down a trail I have a hard time say whoa - wrong direction.  This was made worse when I discovered  'Abebooks' online - So now my bookshelves contain such thrillers as the 1993 "Church and Denominational Growth" by Roozen and Hadaway; 1990 Holding Fast/Pressing On: Religion in America in the 1980's' and 2000 Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling'.

I'm a week behind and it is time to pull it together.  It is physically painful.  My 60 year old eyes don't proof like they use to.  I search for distractions.  Actually I don't have to search - it is natural.  Which is what this post is.  I just discovered the childhood roots of by google obsession.  I grew up in a house with few books.  But of the two or three we had, my very favorite was a 1946 hard-bound book by George Stipson: A Book About a Thousand Things,. written in a question-answer format. I loved that book. I read it constantly, over and over again.  All I would have to do is open a page find learn the most amazing things. Page 312-313 answers the following questions: What is the Bronx? How is Leigh Hunt's first name pronounced? What countries comprise the Near East? How do birds locate earthworms in the ground? and Why do wild geese fly in a V-shaped formation?

I'm now the proud owner of this very worn, somewhat musty book.  No one else in my family was interested when my parents were clearing things out.  But I love it still.

What more could an eight-year old girl in Boise, Idaho, want to know?

Nancy

ps. Book About a Thousand Things is available for only $1.00 at Abe's

UUA out of touch with Congregations??

Is the UUA out of touch with our congregations; many would say yes.   The gulf that exists between the UUA and congregations. Roozen’s lens provides us with a different perspective. Local congregations are “in practice predominantly communal organizations –dominant inducement are things such as socializing, congeniality, and a sense of group identification --- they are predominantly oriented toward harmony, not towards issues and causes” P 596  While I rarely think of UU congregations as bastions of harmony, the need to be in community does require a way of being and relating.  Changes must be made in consideration that one co-exists with members and friends in a spiritual home. “These communal constrains of local congregations make them appear to denominational executives as overly passive, if not downright resistant to the denomination’s purposeful goals”.   

Roozen describes headquarters as “purposive”; their major incentive is the purposes of the denomination.  Denominational staff not only gives priority to the purposive, but work in settings unfettered by community constraints that give them the freedom to do so. … This can make them appear as excessively “independent”.   

Congregational Polity - durable for 400 years

Congregational polity is not the most efficient style of governance.  But it does provide the ability to adapt, something needed still today. Conrad Wright, reminds us:  So it is a fact of no small consequence that Unitarian Universalists stand in a traditionof congregational polity that is almost four centuries old;… , their congregationalism has proved to be more durable and adaptable [my emphasis]  to changing times than any of the doctrinal formulations— whether of God, or human nature, or human destiny—that dominate accounts of the history of liberal religion.[i]  Interestingly, Roozen’s research confirms that such structures that optimize “the participatory and relational work of working across diversity are more adaptive than structures that optimize efficiency and control”  [ii]    So perhaps the very disorganization and inefficiency experience in our congregations and at our national headquarters makes us healthier and more adaptive.

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[i] Wright, Conrad Congregational Polity A Historical Survey of

Unitarian and Universalist Practice Skinner Books Congregational Polity

A Historical Survey of

Unitarian and Universalist Practice

Conrad Wright

[ii] Roozen , p 610

Guardians of Unitarian Universalism

From my reading:

Director, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, research director, David Roozen, makes the following point:   clergy will increasingly become the guardians of denominationalism because the religious identity of laity is increasingly local and personal.   One could reframe this to read: Professional ministry will increasingly become the guardians of Unitarian Universalism because the religious identity of laity is increasingly focused on the local congregation and on personal issues or identities. (Social justice, ethnic identity, or spiritual practices)

Hmmm -- where is our laity voice?